Ramon’s Mom’s Beans

One of my Dad’s friends from work, Ramon, very generously brought in some beans from his Mother’s garden – so many, in fact, that it appeared to be a bumper crop! To honour Ramon and Ramon’s Mother for sharing these lovely green beans, I decided to make something extremely simple to really appreciate the flavour of the beans.

For this recipe, it was prepared with love by our whole family, together, and as soon as it was finished, we ate ALL of it that night, with the exception of what we’d packed away for my Dad’s lunch at work the next day. We all worked together to wash the beans and nip the ends off, and then slice them on an angle finely, sliced ham into small pieces, and minced three cloves of garlic.

Once we had a steamer full of the sliced beans, we added the appropriate amount of water and steamed them for approximately twenty minutes. Next we heated the olive oil in a large frying pan, and added the minced garlic, cooking until we could smell its aroma. We quickly added the beans, stirring them thoroughly to coat them in the olive oil and garlic; adding and stirring in the ham last.

Once I was satisfied that all the flavours had pleasingly combined with each other, we gave it the “Dad Taste Test”: I brought some to our Dad, he tasted it, and said that it needed something – back to the kitchen! My Mum added a light amount of honey, stirring it in while the beans were still hot to spread it evenly, and then added a light sprinkling of garlic powder to taste, stirring that in as well. I took it to my Dad for the Dad Taste Test #2, and it met with approval – I placed a serving with him to enjoy. My youngest brother, however, said that he’d much preferred the earlier version without the honey, and to please not add honey to the entire dish next time, offering that people could have a choice to add honey to their own servings. Well!

Oh, what lovely beans, Zoe! Honey and garlic can often be just the right ingredients to add.🙂 Of course, I might be biased regarding the honey. LOL And I do think your brother is probably right … I’d have to taste this recipe to be sure I preferred the honey and sometimes my tastes could vary.😉

They looks yummy! It reminded me of gardening and then cooking with fresh ingredients when I would visit my Grandma in the summer. She would make them with onions and bacon and danggit….I am now hungry!🙂

Hi Zoe, your green bean recipe looks great and so close to Ramon’s mom’s recipe she gave me. In hers she uses beef, garlic and black bean sauce. I will be sure to show her yours.Glad you enjoyed the beans.